Under certain conditions, a user who is the intended recipient of an instant message does not read an instant message even though the message is received by the user's instant message client. For example, a window for displaying the instant message may not be displayed long enough to allow adequate time for reading the message if there is an untimely (1) closing of the window, (2) exiting or crashing of the instant message client, (2) crashing of the operating system of the user's computing device, or (3) powering down of the user's computing device. Conventionally, the user receives no assistance from the instant message client in identifying the instant message as being unread under the aforementioned conditions. Further, known techniques for recovering such an unread message include a time-consuming and predominantly manual search of log files based on timestamps. Thus, there exists a need to overcome at least one of the preceding deficiencies and limitations of the related art.